Monday, January 30, 2017

My Intractable Disease Is a Blessing For Me

On Jan.29 2017, we invited Brother Hiroki Yasuda who was born with an incurable disease called “Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy”. His message was so poweful that we decided to share his massege on our homepage.

“My Intractable Disease Is a Blessing For Me”

Bible Text: John 15:15-16

Brother Hiroki Yasuda

My name is Hiroki Yasuda. I
was born with an incurable disease called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. This
disease is caused by a genetic abnormality and it gradually degenerates the
body’s muscles. As the muscles deteriorate, we start losing our ability to
move, breathe, and eat.

Right now, I am unable to
breathe on my own, and so I am living with a ventilator (artificial breathing
machine) 24/7. Because I can only move my thumbs, I cannot eat, use the toilet,
change my clothes or do anything self-related on my own, so, in due time, I
will be a bedridden person.

Right now I am 25 years old.
I was diagnosed with the disease at the age of 4, and at that time was told
that I would live until 20 years old. However, I was brought up without knowing
that I had an incurable sickness.

When I was young, I could not
run or climb the stairs unless I grasped the railings firmly, but I just
supposed that I did not have good motor nerves. I continued to think so even
when, at age 9, I became wheelchair bound. When I became an adult and asked my
parents why they had not told me that I had an incurable disease, they
answered, “We couldn’t bring ourselves to believe that you would die at 20
years old…”

And my parents were Christians so since I was born
I attended church. When I was 13, I professed my belief in God through the
Resolution of Confession of Faith. On spring of my 18th year, when I
was keenly studying for the universities’ entrance exams, I started to
understand the reality of incurable diseases. Neither I nor my doctor knew that
the disease was getting worse, and in one year I was hospitalized 5 times.

I would have visceral pains all day, vomiting would
not stop, my breathing was heavy, and I had severe headaches, which made it
hard to sleep. Everyday my consciousness would become disoriented, and I would
spend my days wondering rather I was really going to die. In the meantime, I
was still working hard for the entrance exams, but with the headaches and
difficult breathing, I was forgetting quickly what I had studied, and since the
exam scores were gradually getting lower, it was painful to see my efforts
going to waste.

In this way, as I was
suffering, I continued praying that God would help me. After 1 year of
continuous suffering, I was able to learn about a hospital in Shikoku, thanks
to God’s guidance and my mom’s efforts, where there were doctors that were
really good. In that hospital, the ventilator was introduced to me, and I was
saved from the dying state that I was in. As I look back, I think God rescued
me, because I was really in danger of life.

However, in order to live with a ventilator, you
are required to get medical examinations every month for the doctor to manage
the situation. At the local hospital that I was admitted to in Fukuoka for the
examinations, I received the doctor’s statement of life expectancy: “You will
soon become bedridden; even if you undergo life-prolonging treatments, you will
pass away at 35”. It was a heart-tearing statement. At that moment, I
understood the reality of incurable diseases.

Afterwards, I was able to get into a university;
however, because of my bad physical condition, I had to drop out after only
half a year. After that, every day was about looking after myself. Because I
had received a life-expectancy declaration, and my body had to use a ventilator
and was in intense pain, my life was now spent in bed. But this brought a lot
of stress and my feelings became very dark.

As I was praying my everyday prayer, I started to cry
out to God my true emotions. Why did I turn out to be someone who has this
incurable illness that kills you at 35?! I don’t want to suffer to then die!
God, I am asking you, please cure me from this incurable sickness, there is no
meaning in living in this painful condition! Does my life consist only of
waiting for death?! I continued to exclaim these things in prayer.

At this time, I could not
understand the purpose for living and I was in despair. Why can’t I become
healthy? Will I die at 35? With this sickness I can’t work, I can’t get
married, God, with this sickness I can’t do anything.

I would soon not be able to
move, and the disease would bring a painful death; from now on how should I go
on living? If I do not use the ventilator, life cannot go on, so I might die
tomorrow. I was living everyday dominated by great anxiety.

It was important for me to
know the meaning of life. But even though I continued praying, I did not
understand the purpose for living, thus I suffered. Even so, I always read the
Bible and prayed, I did not quit attending the church service every Sunday; but
it was painful because it was the day I would feel the silence of God.

At this time, I read a book
by an Austrian psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl, called “Man’s Search for Meaning”,
from which I learned something:

Suffering without meaning is
despair; if you cannot find meaning in suffering, you will become desperate; if
you do find meaning in suffering, you will become hopeful. I learned that we
should not simply be unhappy because of sufferings; on the contrary, by finding
meaning in our sufferings, we transform our lives into hope.

So I began to believe that,
no matter how painful life is, if I can find meaning in life, without losing
hope, I can live. After that, I was
convinced that God would give me the meaning for living, and so I kept waiting
for God to speak.

Then, 10 months after the doctor’s life-expectancy
pronouncement, the following Bible verse spoke to my heart:

Ezekiel 2:8

“But you, son of man, listen
to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious house; open your mouth
and eat what I give you.”

Through this Word, I was able
to start believing that, by always reading the Bible, which is the Word of God,
and always praying to God, He will speak to my heart, He will change my heart,
and He will save me from despair.

Then, a year and a half after
the doctor had given me my life expectancy, my heart was changed through the
following Bible verse:

John 15:15-16

“Instead,
I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have
made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to
go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you
whatever you ask in my name.”

I wish I had not been born
with an incurable disease, but I felt that I was appointed by God and chosen to
be born with this sickness. God created a sick me, I was appointed by God to
live a life of infirmity, and so from the time I was born I have been
challenging this life of sickness.

Through the previous Bible
verses, I was able to accept myself as a person with an incurable disease.
Before that, I was the foundation of my life. I was aiming to be a healthy
person that could live by himself, a self with no weaknesses, a self that would
be successful in society.

Therefore, this self that was incurable and sick
was a useless human being. I myself had decided on my own value: a self that
cannot do anything has no meaning for living. Thus, it was painful all the
time.

But, through the previous
Bible words, I was able to really feel God’s love: God created me with an
inborn intractable disease; I was born out of God's desire; I am also a work of
God; my sickly self is not God’s failed work.

If I myself decided on my own
value, it resulted only in bitterness. But, even when in the middle of
hardships, through the Word of God, you embrace yourself, and are able to
accept yourself as you are, you can feel the love that God is pouring on you,
through the Bible and through prayer, and so the joy of living springs up, no
matter what kind of life you are given.

My sick self-thought that I
did not have anything, that I could not do anything. However, I was made aware
of a different truth. I was made aware that God has given me also a life of importance. And not only life; the greatest gift
God has given us is Jesus Christ’s love. Christ’s love, that caused Him to
sacrifice His own life on a cross to rescue us sinful people, is the greatest
gift.

God’s only son, Jesus Christ, died for us on the
cross, in order to save us from the sufferings of sin and death. Then,
conquering death, He was resurrected on the third day.

esus, not dying for His own
sin, was buried in a grave and raised to life on the third day, so that people
who believe might be saved from the sting of sin and death. We are forgiven of
our sins, and when we die we inherit eternal life with God.

God does
not think that we are small and insignificant. I understood that, to God, our
existence is so important and He loves us to such an extent that He sent His
only son, Jesus Christ, most important being of all, to die on the cross, to
save us from the sufferings of sin and death.

Despite
us being sinners, we are forgiven by Jesus’ precious blood and drawn into the
fullness of God' s love. This love of Jesus is given unconditionally to those
who believe in Him, not according to their abilities and actions.

When I began to understand Jesus’
love anew, I prayed to God like this: “This sick and incurable me is nothing. I
cannot do anything. I have nothing to offer to you but this life, God. I offer
my life to you, Lord.”

I
thought that this sick me had nothing and could do nothing. But I learned that,
since Jesus’ love was given unconditionally, to live for God and to offer our
lives to God is also unconditional.

Even though you feel you do
not have anything in yourself and cannot do anything by yourself, when you
decide to surrender your life gladly to God, He will give you a mission only
you can do, and will provide all the necessary things to do it.

Since I decided to offer my
life to God, I began to feel the mission of living as an incurable Christian,
"to convey God through a life of incurable disease, and to convey the
faith and hope that is developed through it."

From then on, my life changed
little by little. First of all, with God's guidance, I was liberated from
bedridden living after my disease was treated at the world's top hospitals.
Then, thanks to God 's mysterious guidance, many churches in various places have
been inviting me to their worship service and giving me opportunities to witness
for God. I am truly thankful.

Right now I think that, human
beings’ meaning for living is not to be decided by themselves or by others, but
God who lives in us decides. Even I, with an incurable illness, have a meaning
in life, because God has given me a mission. I have joy in living.

Looking back now, I think
that all my frustrations, the trials of having this intractable illness, and
the near-death experiences, were all God 's plan. I believe that God gifted me
this incurable disease, so that I could believe in Jesus, be born again as a
child of God, and fulfill my God-given mission. So, for me, this illness is a
trial of grace. I have a purpose for living because I have this incurable
disease.

In this way, even though I have this incurable
illness, I was able to find a meaning for living. But, I was able to do so
because of the hope of resurrection that Jesus gives.

I was living in days of
despair, and could not understand the purpose of life. But as I read the Bible
and prayed, God revived me.

John 11:25-26 says,

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He
who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and
believes in me will never die.’”

Jesus is the one who was resurrected
above the power of death. He was the one victorious over the power of death.
Therefore, those who believe in the restoration that Jesus gives, no matter how
much they are despairing in life, can have courage even in despair because God
will surely provide restoration. Even if you are in despair, it’s okay. Because
God will surely give you restoration.

Even if I die young, I will
be able to live for eternity with God in Heaven, restored in a glorious body,
so it's okay. Eternity of fellowship with God is the greatest joy for man.

No matter what trials come my
way, from the time I believed in Jesus, my revival had already begun. My body
is getting weaker and weaker as I start to face death, but I am also beginning to
revive to eternal life. As children of God, we can be born to eternal life.

Since I
have a mission to live as an incurable Christian, I will continue to share
about the awesomeness of believing in God. I do not know how much can be done
in this short remaining life expectancy of 9 years. However, I pray that God
can use it according to His desire until the day I am called to heaven.

Lastly,
I will read Mizuno Genzo’s Christian poem. Mizuno Genzo had severe cerebral
palsy, and due to this, he was not able to move his arms and legs and could not
speak. However, being able to move his eyes, he would compose many poems of
faith through blinking.

I will
close by reading Mizuno Genzo’s poem “If There Were No Sufferings”.

“If I
had not suffered, I would not have known God’s love

If many
brothers and sisters had not suffered, God’s love would not have been shared

If the
Lord Jesus had not suffered, God’s love would not have been made visible”